Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Bukit Antarabangsa Landslide - a close encounter

5th December 20089:00 p.m.Zilin arrived at my place in Oakleaf Park Condominium. We had dinner together and watched a bit of TV after. Nothing seemed unsual. Just an ordinary Friday night. We went to sleep at about 12:00 a.m.

6th December 20084:30 a.m.I woke up from my slumber. Felt exceptionally warm. Why was the air-conditioner off? I remembered switching it on before I went to bed. I got up, checked the fuse box. It was okay. The corridor lights were still on, but the neighbour's porch light was out. Hmm... Strange. Too sleepy to think, I went back to bed.

8:45 a.m.Still in semi-concious mode. Maroon 5 'makes me wonder' was playing at the background. That'd be my ringtone, I thought, and decided to ignore it. Five minutes later I called back LingYue. Landslide? What landslide? Bungalow near my house? On TV news? So that's why the electricity supply was out. I promised to get back to her later.

10:15 a.m.Zilin and I walked down towards Impian Selatan Condominium and could not believe our eyes when we saw this...

The whole lot of bungalows were damaged beyond repair. One of the houses used to have two Porche parked right at the front. My brother and I would look at them in awe whenever we drove pass. I could only imagine what became of those luxurious cars.

11:20 a.m.No power supply, and no water supply (only temporary supply from the water storage tank). We have food but without electricity for the refrigerator, it would get stale within approximately 30 hours. We couldn't drive out because the only access road to the outside was blocked. What should we do?

11:35 a.m.There was a path through Impian Selatan Condominium that could lead us out. It's muddy and slippery and difficult to walk. But at least we'd be out of here. Should we go or should we stay?

1:50 p.m.The access through Impian Selatan Condominium had been blocked as it was flooded. Another path was opened. To go through it we had to climb a 6-storeys high hill. I was worried about my mom's physical ability. Should we go or should we stay?

2:00 p.m.We had decided to stay till tomorrow. If there's still no power supply by tomorrow afternoon, there's no way we're staying. We'd be starved (or bored) to death. Since there was nothing to do, we took a nap.

5:00 p.m.We discovered from a neighbour that they were giving away food supply and candles further uphill. So Zilin and I drove up to get some while my mom stayed put at home. By the time we got down it was already dark. Zilin said that our situation was very dangerous because we were running out of ammo, and that the pedestrians were all zombies lurking in the dark waiting to feast on human flesh. I looked at him one kind and decided that it's time to forbid him to play anymore computer games.

7th December 200810:00 a.m.Still no water supply. Still no power supply. The road through Impian Selatan Condominium had been reopened. Should we go or should we stay?

1:15 p.m.After a delicious homecook meal, we decided it was time to go. We packed our stuff (just a few clothings and cash) put on our running shoes and were ready to go jungle trekking. On our way we saw what terrible things the landslide had done. The cars were squashed by the roof. Pity those homelesss people... The muddy path we had to walk through. This is considered the easiest part. When we were out, we found ourselves behind the rows of ground zero bungalows. This was considered the danger zone. Though the houses were not damaged, the occupants were evacuated. We saw cracks on the bitumen road.

More cracks...

HUGE cracks!!!

There were authorities standing by.

Almost out of the danger zone. At the other side of the landslide, authorities standing by. At that moment, the rescue team were still working to find more survivors.

Tired and exhausted.

2:45 p.m.My sister came to pick us up. We'd be staying with her for the time being.